


You Trip Me Up: A Klaine Advent Story

by notarelationship (justpracticing)



Category: Glee
Genre: Canon Assault, Drabble Collection, M/M, Nerd!Blaine, Skank!Kurt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-07-06 04:59:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15879045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justpracticing/pseuds/notarelationship
Summary: Blaine is new at McKinley. Kurt finds him interesting. They run into a little trouble but it all works out in the end.





	You Trip Me Up: A Klaine Advent Story

**Author's Note:**

> Majority of this was written for the 2017 Klaine Advent, but I bailed at the end. Finally finished the last few word prompts so I could clean it up a bit and post it here, in its entirety. 
> 
> I've made some minor changes, for clarification and syntax, and cleaned up some wacky tense problems.
> 
> Each word prompt heads a new section, and you'll see them in bold throughout the story. I seemed to make more sense than driving myself insane posting 24 small chapters....
> 
> Unbetaed - so apologies for all the mistakes I've missed!

**Attachment**

Blaine Anderson was not entirely happy.

It was only his second day at McKinley High School, but he could already tell it wasn’t going to be anywhere as inviting or fun as his old school. It wasn’t that he minded being in public school after three glorious years roaming Dalton’s cozy, wood paneled halls, but, well, everyone here was just so, well, _uncivilized._

Blaine straightened his bow tie and gathered his books and supplies from his desk, not bothering to put them in his book bag. His locker was just around the corner, and he only needed to deposit his things there and get to glee club practice

It was barely ten minutes after the last bell, but already the McKinley’s halls were nearly empty. Kids were rushing out the doors at the far end of the hall, heading out into the parking lot. That was another thing that would be hard to get used to. So many of the kids who attended Dalton boarded there, so that there were always other people around. Whether it was a school sponsored club, a homework group, of just a bunch of guys who wanted to hang out and watch TV in one of the common rooms, there was always someone around who wanted to be there. It probably wasn’t worth dwelling on. His dad had transferred jobs and the tuition at Dalton was just too steep now.

Blaine rushed down the hall, determinedly not thinking about how much he missed Dalton, and not really paying attention to his surroundings, when he turned the corner toward his locker and smacked right into another student. His books and notebooks and three of his favorite Palomino Blackwing pencils scattered across the floor, the student he’d run into sprawled in the middle of Blaine’s academic wreckage.

“What the fu--”

“Oh my god I’m so sorry!” Blaine dropped to the floor to see if the boy (because Blaine did notice that it was a boy) was alright.

“You’re surprisingly solid for your size,” the boy drawled. His voice was much higher than Blaine expected, given he looked like he’d just stepped out of a documentary about the resurgence of teenage delinquents in small towns across America.. He shook the thought form his head. Everyone goes through puberty at their own speed. Blaine’s just happened to be catching up with him right there in the hallway while he was staring at a boy.

“Oh, I -” Blaine blinked and lost his train of thought. The boy had steel blue eyes and fair skin, and a shocking pink streak dyed through his brown hair. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah you said that.” The boy shifted to a sitting position, looking expectantly at Blaine. “Well? Are you gonna help me up?”

“Oh! Oh, yes. I’m sorry.” Blaine mentally kicked himself for apologizing again, and stood and offered his hand, noticing for the first time that the boy’s jeans were ripped across both thighs, and his t-shirt was torn under the right arm so that Blaine could see the hair in his armpit. Blaine swallowed and tried not to look him in the eye as the boy took Blaine’s hand and pulled himself to his feet. “I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

“No kidding.”

“Oh my goodness, where are my manners.” The boy chuckled as if Blaine had made a joke. “I’m, Blaine.” He offered his hand again, this time as an introduction, but the boy just stared at him, appraising in a way that made Blaine flush all the way to his toes.

“Blaine?” It was Tina, from glee club. Blaine bit back a curse. Of course he was late for glee now. She was looking back and forth between Blaine and the boy, wearing a worried expression. “Is everything okay?”

“Hi Tina. Everything’s fine.” He gestured to the floor. “I sort of dropped my stuff. I’ll pick it up and be right in.”

“Glee Club, huh?”

“Yeah, it’s not as good as my old school, but it might be alright.” Blaine shrugged. “Do you want to -?” Blaine gestured toward the choir room down the hall.

The boy made a derisive noise and walked in the opposite direction. “See ya round, _Blaine_.”

xxxxx

**Bucket**

“Blaine! Blaine are you alright?”

Blaine had been able to tell after one meeting with this glee club that Rachel Berry was ambitious, hyper talented, and extremely intense.

“Tina said you actually bumped into Kurt Hummel in the hallway and actually knocked him over.” She placed a concerned hand on his forearm. “He didn’t threaten to kill you or anything, did he?”

She was also prone to exaggeration.

“No? Does he threaten to kill a lot of people?”

Blaine moved tentatively to sit in the second row on the risers. He still hadn’t quite figured out where everyone else’s preferred seats were, and he didn’t want to cause any trouble.

“Well. Last summer they found a bucket full of dismembered body parts behind the Meijer and everyone said that Kurt Hummel had beaten someone to death after they scratched his car and then he had to dispose of the body so he hid it in there so everyone would think it was just waste from the butcher.” Rachel’s eyes were huge and her mouth was drawn tight. “I’m a vegan, by the way.”

Blaine blinked a dozen times before he could respond. The boy he’d knocked over seemed a little rough (cute) around the edges, but he didn’t seem murderous.

“Rachel he really didn’t seem like he was capable of killing anyone. He didn’t even really seem that mad about it.”

“He probably just wants a bite outta that ass short stack.” One of the other girls - Blaine thought her name was Santana - had walked in and sat on a chair in the back while Rachel was going on about Kurt. “And those were pig parts Berry. It was waste from the butcher.”

“Short st - I’m as tall as you,” Blaine said.

“Not the point.” She snapped her gum. “He definitely wants to bite that.” Santana indicated towards Blaine’s backside and he reflexively and unconsciously and embarrassingly twisted around to look at his own ass. “Don’t worry, it’s a fine ass. If I swung that way I’d want a piece too.” She shrugged and sat back in her chair.

“Kurt’s a unicorn, you’re rainbow flavored, it only makes sense.” The girl sitting next to Santana was…odd.

“I-I don’t think I’ve said anything about - anything.”

Santana rolled her eyes. “Please.”

“It’s okay Blaine, I have two gay dads,” Rachel said, her eyes full of concern.

Blaine really hadn’t planned on coming out so soon. He hadn’t heard great things about McKinley’s tolerance. He sighed.

“Fine. I am gay - and proud of it, by the way. But I don’t see what that has to do with - “

“Hey is everybody ready?” Their coach, Mr. Schuester, interrupted. Blaine was starting to think he was never going to get to complete an actual sentence at this school. “We need to start pulling together our Sectionals set so everyone - today’s lesson is songs about divorce!”

Blaine just stared. Nothing about this place made sense.

~~~~~

Three days later Blaine was walking through the parking lot after rehearsal, frustrated with the inability of anyone in this glee club to focus,so he didn’t notice the figure leaning against his car, flicking a lighter on and off, until he was almost on top of him.

“I knew this was your car.”

Blaine loved his car. It was an eight year old Volvo wagon his parents gave him when he passed his driver’s test.

“Is that a problem?”

Kurt pushed off the car and stood a little closer.

“Nope. I need a ride.”

Blaine licked his lips. He wasn’t entirely sure what Kurt wanted, but there was definitely something a little heated in the way he was looking at Blaine. Blaine thought about what Santana had said earlier.

“Okay.”

xxxxx

**Collapse**

Kurt knew what he was doing once. 

In the grand scheme of the things that made up his life, he used to have it all planned out. He was going to get out of Lima and move to New York and meet some gorgeous man who just happened to be both wealthy and unpretentious (okay, maybe just a little pretentious), who loved children and old people and traveling and had a penthouse apartment in Chelsea, and who could rein in some of Kurt’s more unpleasant traits (like the junk food addiction and his tendency to insult first and understand later - 

“Can you please not smoke in the car?”

and the smoking). Kurt frowned and put the cigarette he had absentmindedly taken out and started to light. Yeah, Kurt had plans, once, until they collapsed around him.

But once was a long time ago, and now he didn’t even know what he was doing in this car with the odd new kid. He who wore bow ties and globs of hair gel and sang in the glee club for fuck’s sake. And said “okay” when Kurt told him he needed a ride. Kurt didn’t even know if he was gay. Maybe he didn’t know Kurt was gay? Nah, Santana would have told him by now. 

“Well do you have any gum, then?” 

“Yeah it’s in my -” Blaine made a move to turn around while driving but then seemed to think better of it. “In my bookbag there’s some. You’ll have to get it.” 

Kurt snorted. “You don’t even know me. You want me to go into your book bag?” 

Blaine shrugged one shoulder and glanced at Kurt. “Better than you smoking in my car. Besides, I’m not hiding anything in my bag.” Kurt twisted and yanked Blaine’s book bag out from the floor behind the driver’s seat.

“Let’s see about that, shall we?” Kurt settled Blaine’s bag on his lap and lifted the flap, digging around inside. “Textbook, textbook, notebook, homework assignments. A calculus syllabus? Wow, you _are_ Boring Blaine,” Kurt said. 

“The gum is in the front pocket.” Blaine batted at Kurt’s hands and Kurt pushed him away.

“Eyes on the road, Jeeves! I’d like to get to my destination in one piece.”

“Yeah, about that. Where exactly am I driving you?” Blaine asked.

“Oh right.” Kurt stopped digging around in the bag long enough to give Blaine directions, then went back for the gum. He found it in the front pocket, along with an embarrassing number of colored pens, a small, still new school planner, and a tiny, shiny, enameled rainbow pin. “Oh hey - what do we have here?” 

Blaine glanced over, eyes narrowing at Kurt for a second before he had to look back out the windshield. 

“Something you want to tell me, Blaine?” Kurt held up the pin and wiggled it.

Blaine huffed quietly before answering. “Something you want to ask me, _Kurt_?”

Kurt considered Blaine for a moment. He probably didn’t deserve all the awful things that were about to befall him at McKinley. Kurt could warn him. He almost wanted to.

“No, I guess it’s really none of my business,” Kurt said softly. “Just - be careful. McKinley isn’t very friendly to those of us who don’t conform.”

Blaine didn’t answer, and it took Kurt a minute to realize they had arrived at their destination. 

“Hummel Tire & Lube,” Blaine said. “Are you the Hummel?”

Kurt untangled himself form Blaine’s bag and the seatbelt, giggling to himself as he opened the door. “Nope, that’s my dad.” 

“So do you work here?” Blaine was leaning over to survey the front of the garage through the open passenger side door.

Kurt climbed out and shut the door, but he couldn’t resist leaning in through the open window. “I take care of the lube,” he snickered. Kurt was sure he heard Blaine gasp a quiet _ohmygod_ as he walked away. 

xxxxx

**Drink**

Blaine sighed and spun the last number of his lock into place, focusing on the sound of the clinking metal as he pulled on the shackle and wrestled open his locker. One of the (many) downsides of starting at McKinley High School two weeks into the school year was that the only lockers left to assign him were broken. 

Glee club had been a disaster _again_ and he was seriously missing the more disciplined rehearsals he’d had at Dalton, even if he had complained about them at the time. At least they could plan a set and carry it through. Blaine wasn’t sure that the New Directions had even tried doing the same song twice in the last two weeks. They were _so_ going to lose at sectionals. 

Blaine slammed his locker shut. He hated losing.

And it had been a week since Kurt had spoken to him at all, and he hated to admit that it was bothering him. 

After their trip to Kurt’s dad’s garage Blaine wasn’t sure if they were friends or what, but he hadn’t seen Kurt at school at all, so he did a little investigating. Tina didn’t really want to tell him anything, and Rachel wanted to tell him everything, but he had a feeling that half of what Rachel said was based on exaggerated rumours. He knew that he really didn’t know Kurt, but he had a hard time believing Kurt was running drugs over the border into Michigan on weekends. 

~~~~

Blaine spent 6th period every day as the office assistant. He spent most of the hour filing attendance reports that were taken after lunch, but sometimes he had to retrieve files for the assistant principals, and once the cheerleader’s coach had come in and made him look up the height and weight of each girl in the sophomore class. Blaine was pretty sure that was a violation of some law, but he really didn’t want to get on that particular coach’s bad side, so he did as he was told.

He was filing attendance reports and trying to think up ways to get the glee club on track when one of the counselors walked by and dropped three files in his ‘to be filed’ basket. Blaine finished filing the attendance reports (why didn’t they have these computerized?) and picked up the new files. They were blue, which meant they were disciplinary files, and that cabinet was in the locked file room. 

Blaine grabbed the keys from the top drawer of the secretary’s desk and let himself into the file room. The first file was for a student named Brett Nelson. Blaine wondered if it was Stoner Brett, but not enough to take a peek inside. He wasn’t supposed to look inside any of the student files.

The next one was - Blaine stopped and stared at the folder. Half-legible across the tab was the name _Kurt Hummel_. Blaine didn’t want to look. He didn’t. He also didn’t want to file it away right away, so he picked up the next folder, which was for David Karofsky. Blaine was pretty sure he was that meathead football player all the kids in the glee club complained about, but he hadn’t had any run-ins with him yet. The boy wasn’t in any of Blaine’s classes so he didn’t give him a lot of thought.

Blaine checked the clock to make sure he wasn’t going to be late for class, and was relieved to see he still had ten minutes. It was enough time to just take a peek. He didn’t want to invade Kurt’s privacy. Setting the file on top of the cabinet, he opened it and just took a peek at the first page.

There was a photograph of Kurt, probably from the previous year, his basic information - address, emergency contact, etc. His schedule was below that, and Blaine was shocked to see that Kurt was supposed to be in five of his classes - three of which were AP classes. Blaine was sure Kurt had never shown up for any class that they had together. He was even more shocked to see that his GPA through junior year was a more than respectable 3.68. Blaine hadn’t thought Kurt wasn’t smart, exactly, but he wouldn’t have put him in AP classes or pegged him for having such a high GPA. He mentally chastised himself for making assumptions about someone based on the way they dressed. He wanted to be better than that.

Feeling guilty, Blaine just scanned a few of the writeups in the file - cutting class, fighting, defacing school property, not good things but hardly criminal behavior. Any one of those things could have an explanation. Blaine really didn’t know what he had expected to find, but at least he knew a little more about Kurt. 

Blaine put Kurt’s file in the cabinet, replaced the key in the secretary’s desk, and picked up his book bag, saying a polite goodbye to the staff as he left to get to his seventh period class.

He didn’t notice the wall of football players standing outside the office door as he left, turning in the opposite direction from where they were standing. And he didn’t realize that the “ _Hey! Hey nerd!_ ” calls he heard behind him were directed at him until suddenly there was a six foot tall three foot wide 17 year old boy standing in front of him.

“Can’t you hear, new kid?” One of them said.

“What? You were talking to me? I didn’t, no, I -” 

“We missed you at the beginning of the year, so we thought it was time to welcome you to McKinley HIgh School.”

“Um -”

“Yeah, we like to buy every one of those singing fairies a drink to start the year.”

“But we missed you.”

“I started a few weeks late, I -” Blaine wasn’t sure what was happening, but he didn’t think it was good.

“Oh, well that explains it.” Blaine thought that one was Karofsky, but before he could wonder anything else he was hit in the face with what felt like a bucket of syrupy ice.

Blaine froze, the ice cold splash made it impossible to react or shout or anything. He could hear the football players laughing and high-fiving, but all he could do was sputter through the slush as he tried to wipe it out of his eyes. 

“Karofsky!” Blaine heard someone shout, then he was shoved out of the way, crumpling to the floor as his foot slipped in a puddle. He heard scuffling and what was definitely a body slamming into a locker. It felt like minutes, but it was probably only seconds before he managed to clear his eyes and push himself up.

He did not expect to see Kurt stradling a football player who’d fallen, and pounding on his face. 

xxxxx

**Example**

“Are you sure no one’s home?” Kurt parked Blaine’s car in the driveway, squinting out the window at the hopefully empty house. It was bigger than he expected.

Blaine hadn’t said a word during the drive from school. Coach Sue had shown up and the other football players had scattered, leaving only Kurt, Blaine, and Dave to take the heat. Coach took one look at Blaine, scowled, and sent him and Kurt away, dragging Karofsky to the principal’s office. Kurt was forever grateful that she had a soft spot for him, even though he’d probably get suspended anyway.

Kurt had gotten them both to the car and taken Blaine’s keys. He didn’t seem like he was in any condition to drive.

Even now he was hugging himself in the passenger seat, shaking his head. 

“No one’s home.”

Okay,” Kurt said. “Let’s get you inside and cleaned up.” Kurt started to get out of the car, but Blaine stopped him. 

“Why did you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Beat up that kid.”

“Karofsky?” Kurt frowned. “Because he’s an asshole. And I need to make an example of of one of them once in a while to keep them in line.” 

It took Blaine a minute to respond, and Kurt was beginning to wonder if maybe Blaine had gone into shock since he was still hugging himself, but then he nodded and pulled on the door handle, stepping out of the car. Kurt watched him fish his keys out of his bag - holding it far away form his body to keep the slushie from ruining it. Kurt followed him up the walk and into the house.

“Where’s your bathroom?” 

“Um,” Blaine started. He seemed to be relaxing a bit now that they were in his home. Kurt understood that - home was always a safe space for him. “My room is upstairs, I have my own bathroom. We should go up there so my mom doesn’t find any drips in the one down here.”

Kurt didn’t think there was any way Blaine was going to make it up the stairs without leaving some kind of drip, but he opted not to say that to Blaine.

“Lead the way.”

There were bigger houses in Lima than the one Blaine lived in, but it was bigger than Kurt’s and everything in it was newer. He had about a dozen questions, but he didn’t ask any of them. 

Once they were in Blaine’s bedroom Blaine went directly to his bathroom and started peeling off his clothes and dropping them in the sink without even closing the door. Kurt swallowed and followed him, hovering in the doorway until Blaine was stripped down to his underwear. It doesn’t mean anything, Kurt told himself. Blaine is just upset. And covered in goop. He’d been there himself.

Blaine was staring into the sink full of his grape syrup covered wardrobe.

“I loved that bow tie.”

“Do you have any club soda?” Kurt asked.

Blaine shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. Maybe in the kitchen?”

“Okay, well, you go - go shower and get that stuff out of your hair.” Kurt waved stiffly at the shower. “I don’t know if I can save everything, but maybe we can rescue your tie?”

Kurt turned and sped out of there and out of Blaine’s bedroom. He wasn’t going to risk Blaine stripping naked right there in front of him. After the afternoon when Blaine had driven him to the garage, Kurt had tried to avoid him. Kurt had spent two years cultivating an air of stay-the-fuck-away-from-me, and he couldn’t afford to develop feelings about some boy. Not when he was so close to getting out.

But here he was, rooting around in Blaine’s kitchen looking for something to get the stain out of his bow tie. Maybe feelings were something he wasn’t going to be able to escape this time.

xxxxx

**Fraction**

Kurt took the stairs two at a time, determined to keep any errant feelings he might be having about Blaine tucked away. It was ridiculous to think that Blaine would want anything to do with him. Kurt got the impression that Blaine really hadn’t approved of his beating Karofsky up.

It didn’t matter. He might not be able to stop those goons from picking on other kids, but he could make sure they didn’t always get away with it.

“Blaine?” Kurt knocked softly on the bathroom door before when he got back to Blaine’s room. He couldn’t hear the shower running and he really didn’t want to walk in on him naked. Well, any _more_ naked. “Are you decent?”

Kurt could hear Blaine moving on the other side of the door, but he still stepped back when Blaine opened it. He was. thankfully, dressed. Kurt didn’t want to complicate his life. The crooked smile Blaine was wearing wasn’t helping.

“Sorry about stripping in front of you,” Blaine said, and Kurt could see the blush rise up his neck from under the tank top he was wearing. That wasn’t helping either. “I was just trying to get out of my clothes.” 

“Yeah I did notice that.” Might as well roll with it, Kurt thought. Maybe if he stayed cocky he’d be safe. Blaine shuffled a little uncomfortably, hugging himself and rubbing one arm up and down. “I didn’t find any club soda downstairs, but there was some of this orange seltzer.” He held up the can he had found. “Let’s see what we can do, huh?” 

Blaine stepped aside and let Kurt have access to the clothes that were sitting in a purple pile in the sink. It looked bad.

“Huh,” Kurt said again. “That’s a lot of slushie.” 

“I _know_.” Blaine moped and sat down on the lid of the toilet. “The other kids in the glee club warned me that this sort of thing happened all the time but I foolishly thought they were exaggerating.” 

“Oh, they were definitely not exaggerating,” Kurt said. “Well your jeans are jeans, so they’ll be fine with a bit of a soak and the washing machine.” Kurt picked them up and put them in the bathtub. “Try to rinse most of the syrup off in the shower first.”

Blaine stood, but instead of taking the jeans from Kurt’s hand, he grabbed Kurt around the wrist and pulled his hand up so he could look at it.

“Kurt!” They weren’t bleeding anymore, but his knuckles were split and scraped from punching Karofsky. “We need to take care of this first.” 

“Blaine no - it’s fine. I’ll just wash the dried blood off.” Blaine took the jeans from Kurt and dropped them in the tub, then moved the rest of the clothes out of the sink into the tub as well. 

“You most definitely will wash off the dried blood,” Blaine said. “And take off your jacket, it’ll make this easier.” 

It was obvious from the look in Blaine’s eye that he wasn’t going to accept ay resistance from Kurt on this. But since he seemed to be coming out of his astonishment at being slushied Kurt went with it. He shrugged out of his jean jacket and let Blaine tug on the sleeves to get them off without dragging them over his sore knuckles. 

“Here,” Blaine reached into a cabinet under the sink and brought out a clean hand towel. “Wash with water and then soap and water, I’ll be right back.” 

“I know how to take care of a bruised knuckle _Blaaine_!” Kurt called after him as he left. But he washed his hands and was drying them on the clean towel when Blaine returned. 

Blaine gingerly took Kurt’s hands, turning them so Kurt’s palms were face down and he could look at the scrapes. 

“They’re not bad Blaine.” Blaine scoffed but didn’t say anything. “I’ve definitely had worse.” Blaine held onto Kurt’s hands a fraction longer than he needed to. 

“Why?” Blaine asked quietly as he went about putting Neosporin on Kurt’s knuckles. “Why do you get into fights?”

Kurt drew his mouth tight. He really didn’t want Blaine to stop touching him. “I didn’t used to,” he answered. “But I got tired of them hitting me first.”

Blaine nodded. “I used to take boxing lessons,” Blaine said. He didn’t elaborate. 

“I’m sorry Blaine,” Kurt said. “You shouldn’t have to put up with it.”

“No.” Blaine shook his head. “No one should.” Blaine finished with Kurt’s hands and then set everything down on the counter. “I’m suddenly really tired. Um, my mom’s not going to be home for a couple of hours. Do you want to take a nap?”

Kurt’s mouth dropped open. 

“I just - I don’t really want you to leave, but I think I’m going to pass out. Just a nap. The bed is more than big enough.”

Kurt turned around, as much to stop looking at Blaine’s insistent face as to see the size of the bed. 

“A nap actually sounds great,” Kurt said. He was so screwed.

xxxxx

**Genuine**

Blaine’s hands were shaking. He asked Kurt to take a nap with him. Who does that? And the weirder part was that he said okay. He said _okay_. 

“Which side?” Blaine asked as he pulled a few pillows out from under the coverlet. Part of him wanted to just get under the blankets and pass out, but inviting Kurt _under the covers_ was taking it too far. They barely knew each other. 

“I don’t know Blaine, I’ve never slept with a guy before. How about you?”

“What?” Blaine blushed all the way from his armpits to his ears. “No! That’s not - that’s not what I meant. I haven’t either, slept with a guy, I mean.” Blaine hugged the pillow he’d just picked up. “I just meant - it was a reflex,” Blaine backpedaled, but when he looked at Kurt one corner of Kurt’s mouth was ticked up in a smile. 

“It’s okay Blaine, I know what you meant.” Still, Kurt fussed around nervously before finally lying down, still fully dressed, next to Blaine. He cupped his hands together beneath his head and stared at the ceiling.

“I don’t know why I’m so tired. It’s barely four o’clock.” Blaine slipped one hand under his head and curled the other tight against his chest. 

“Adrenaline.” 

Blaine blinked slowly, his brain felt slow. “I guess.”

“Trust me. You were attacked. Adrenaline kicks in. When it drains out of your system you just want to pass out.” 

“That sounds like you’re speaking from experience,” Blaine said, yawning. Blaine wasn’t sure why Kurt had decided to stay, but even though he’d only been humiliated and not physically hurt he really was glad he didn’t have to be alone right now. Besides, he was enjoying looking at Kurt. “Can I ask you a question?”

“That was a question.” Kurt smirked at the ceiling.

“Ha ha,” Blaine said. “But really.”

Kurt shrugged a little, still looking at the ceiling. “Sure. Ask away.”

“Why pink?”

That did get Kurt to turn his head and look at Blaine. “Huh?”

“Your hair. Why pink?” Kurt turned his gaze back at the ceiling, but Blaine could see his jaw tense up. He opened and closed his mouth a few times before he finally answered. “It’s okay if you don’t want to answer. We don’t really know each other.”

“You invited me to your bed, Blaine, I think we know each other enough.” Kurt wiggled his eyebrows in Blaine’s direction, and went on. “To piss people off, I guess. I wanted people to leave me alone.”

Blaine may have been tired, but with Kurt lying next to him his head was filling up with all of the questions he wanted to ask. “Why did you want people to leave you alone?”

Blaine could see Kurt frown a little, but he wasn’t sure if it was from the memories he was sifting through or because Blaine was so nosy. But then he sighed and started talking.

“For a long time I was the only out gay kid in school. I mean, other kids called me gay even before I knew for sure that I was.” Kurt paused, but even though Blaine had another half dozen questions he didn’t want to interrupt. “But high school. High school was worse. Kids got bigger, insults got ruder - bullying was physical. I was thrown into dumpsters and shoved into lockers.”

“Oh my god, Kurt.”

“Yeah I didn’t - I couldn’t take it. And the teachers and staff did nothing. So I changed. When I showed up for class sophomore year I had the hair and the clothes. I cut classes if I didn’t want to see the kids in them.” Kurt shrugged, still talking to the ceiling. “My dad wasn’t happy about it, but I kept my grades up.”

“Did it work? Did people leave you alone?”

“You ask a lot of questions.”

“Genuine curiosity.” Blaine burrowed a little deeper into the bed. “I’m sorry though, if it’s making you uncomfortable. I’ll stop.”

Kurt turned, finally rolling over to face Blaine. “Surprisingly, it’s not. You make me feel calm. I haven’t felt that in a while. Not with another person anyway.”

Blaine grinned, but his stomach was all butterflies. Maybe Kurt could actually like him. Maybe he liked Kurt too. 

“So calm you beat the crap out of a football player for me?”

Kurt flopped over onto his back and went back to staring at the ceiling. “I told you already. Those guys are assholes.”

xxxxx

**Health**

Blaine could see Kurt close off again after that.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you - it’s just that sometimes my mouth keeps running even when my brain tells it to shut down.” Blaine knew he was talking too much because he was tired. “I should just shut up and try to get a little sleep.”

Kurt nodded, and his shoulders relaxed a little. “It’s okay,” he said, then he rolled back over to face Blaine. “I don’t know if I’m tired or if your bed is just really comfortable, but a nap is starting to sound really good.” 

Kurt closed his eyes, and even though Blaine didn’t know if it was forced or if Kurt really was tired, Blaine drifted off almost immediately.

Blaine jerked awake what felt like seconds later to pounding on his bedroom door, and someone calling his name. 

“Blaine? Blaine are you in there? You’re school called me at work.”

It was his mother, and while she didn’t sound like she was going to murder him in his bed she didn’t sound happy either. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. Kurt was passed out next to him, one arm flung out over the edge of the bed. Blaine went into a panic - his mother was going to find him with a boy in his bed.

“I’m here Mom,” he called. “Taking a nap.” He shook Kurt gently, “Kurt, Kurt wake up”

“What?” Kurt blinked a few times.”Where? Oh Blaine - right.”

“Stay here,” he whispered. “My mom’s home.”

Blaine got up and went to the door, hearing Kurt utter _shit_ behind him as he rustled awake. At least the lights were on. He pulled the door open a crack and made as sleepy a face as possible.

“Mom?”

“Blaine Anderson. I got a call from a Coach Sylvester this afternoon? She said you were sent home from school for fighting? Fighting Blaine?”

“Mom, no, I wasn’t -”

“I thought we were over this fighting in school.” She pushed past him into the bedroom, still talking. “You had no trouble at all at Dalton for three years Blaine, I don’t understand - Blaine there’s a boy in your room.”

Thankfully, Kurt had moved and was sitting on the bench at the end of the bed instead of still lying on the bed. Maybe she wouldn’t be too angry.

“Blaine please explain yourself. Do I need to call your father and have him come home?”

“No, mom, no. Um, this is Kurt.” Blaine held a hand out where Kurt was sitting. “Kurt, this is my mother - Pam Anderson.”

Kurt looked like he wanted to shrivel up and disappear. Blaine mouthed _I’m sorry_. To Blaine’s surprise, Kurt stood up, wiped his hands on the thighs of his jeans, and held out his hand.

“It’s nice to meet you Mrs. Anderson.” It took her a minute, but she managed to not humiliate Blaine completely by actually shaking Kurt’s hand, albeit tentatively. Then her eyes landed on Blaine’s obviously rumpled bed covers. 

“Kurt.” She turned to Blaine. “Blaine, I think we need to have a very serious discussion, first about your fighting at school and then about - _whatever_ is going on here.”

“There is nothing going on mom, I swear. Some guys at school threw a slushy at me and I was covered in grape ice and Kurt just drove me home. I was freaked out and tired and we just fell asleep. There’s nothing to explain I promise.” Blaine shrugged, his arms falling to his sides. “I didn’t even get into a fight.” Blaine sighed. “You can even see my ruined clothes - they’re in my tub.”

Pam visibly backed down from her building outrage, seeming to be willing to believe at least some of what Blaine was telling her. 

“Okay, well, I think we still need to have a discussion about what’s going on. And I’m going to have to talk to your father about rules about having boys over.” Clearly implying she wasn’t sure she believed that nothing happened there with Kurt. Blaine blushed at the thought, and he could see that Kurt was doing the same. “In the meantime, Kurt, I think you should go home.”

Kurt nodded quickly. “Yeah, um yes. I do need to get home anyway.” He grabbed his jacket and slipped it on. 

“You don’t have a car here - you drove mine,” Blaine said. “I should drive you home.”

“That’s okay - my car is at school. I can walk back there and get it. No problem.” It was obvious that Kurt wanted to get out as soon as he could.

“Blaine you see your friend out, and I’ll be in the kitchen waiting for you,” his mother said, then walked out of the room. Blaine could hear her talking to herself as she left. “Someone should have told me having kids would be bad for my health - between you and Cooper it’s a miracle I’ve made it this long.”

xxxxx

**Inch**

Three day suspension. 

Kurt had given Karofsky a perky wave as he walked past him in the parking lot, before heading to the principal’s office. He supposed it could have been worse, considering what Karofsky’s face looked like. Whatever. He’d done longer suspensions before. He didn’t really care about that.

What he did care about, Kurt was surprised to discover, was what had happened to Blaine after he left his house on Friday afternoon. He didn’t have his number, so he couldn’t call him, and honestly actually calling him would have meant admitting to something he wasn’t sure he was ready for. But he didn’t want Blaine to get in trouble because of him. Obviously, Blaine had a lot more going on, so he had stakes. Kurt was perfectly okay with fucking up his own opportunities for the time being, but he found he didn’t want to fuck up Blaine’s. Blaine was so earnest.

So instead of taking a right out of Principal Figgins’ office and heading straight into the parking lot, he made a left turn and went for Blaine’s locker.

“HUMMEL!” It was Figgins. 

“You can’t give me an inch, can you?” 

“If I do you take a mile, Mr. Hummel. I will see you in three days.” He pointed towards the exit. “Would you like me to call your father directly?”

Kurt tugged at his hair, pulling it into a peak over his forehead. 

“Look, I just want to leave a note for someone who might be looking for me. Can I just do that?”

Figgins crossed his arms over his chest and stared Kurt down. “You alienated all of your friends years ago, who would be looking for you at this point?”

Figgins wasn’t wrong, but he could still hope. “Five minutes.” Kurt held his palm up, five fingers spread in the air.

~~~~~

_“Meet me under the bleachers. 12:40”_

Blaine had slipped the note in his pocket as soon as he read it, not wanting to risk it falling out of his bag or any of his books during morning classes. His friends had stopped asking if Kurt had tried to beat him up, but it didn’t appear that the news of his ritual slushy-ing - or Kurt’s intervening, had made the rounds yet. He made some excuse to Rachel about needing to do some research in the library and slipped out the doors that led to the football field.

When he got there he found Kurt sitting on the fence, smoking a cigarette. He wanted to say something smart or funny, impress Kurt with how cool he could be. But when he opened his mouth all that came out was, “Those things are bad for you.”

Kurt exhaled rings out of his mouth. “Thank you Surgeon General.”

“I’m sorry, I -” _I want to kiss you but I don’t want to lick an ashtray._ “I don’t want to go home smelling like smoke. My parents are pissed enough.”

“Did you get in trouble?” Kurt hopped off the fence and took a step closer. He motioned to a ratty couch as if inviting Blaine to sit. Blaine shook his head. 

“Less than I expected. I have to call them and tell them what I’m doing at all times. And if I have guests over I have to call and tell them who’s in the house with me so they can monitor who I'm spending time with.” 

“That’s all? You didn’t get grounded?” 

Blaine shook his head. “No. they tried that with my brother all the time and it never kept him from doing anything, it just made more work for them trying to keep him under control. I’ve never really gotten in trouble before, so they probably aren’t that worried about me breaking any rules.”

Kurt didn’t say anything, just stood there looking at Blaine kind of strangely. 

“What?” Blaine finally broke the silence.

Kurt frowned. “Nothing it’s just - your mom said something about you fighting in school. And I just can’t picture it.”

Blaine laughed, but it wasn’t funny. “I wouldn’t exactly call what happened to me ‘fighting in school,’ it’s just easier for her that way.” Blaine looked around at the collection of dilapidated furniture and decided the file cabinet that was lying on its side was safe enough to sit on. “Do you mind if I eat my lunch? I’m going to have to get to class soon. You should come to class with me.”

“Nah, I hate that class. And I got suspended anyway. I’m not supposed to be here.” 

“You got suspended? Why?”

“Fighting. This wasn’t even that bad.” He sat next to Blaine on the cabinet. “You bring your lunch? Does your mom make it for you?” Kurt was teasing just a little, but he reached in the container for a grape.

“I make my own lunch,” Blaine said. Blaine wanted to ask about Kurt’s suspension, but he had rolled right past is and didn’t seem to want to say more. “Do you not have any lunch?” He plucked his sandwich out and offered half to Kurt. “It’s turkey.”

“Mayo or mustard?”

“Mustard. Lettuce, tomato, swiss cheese.” Kurt looked as though he was considering saying no, but then the corner of his mouth ticked up. 

“FIne.” Kurt rolled his eyes in mock annoyance. “If you’re going to insist.” 

xxxxx

**Judgment**

By the time Blaine made it to glee club that afternoon the fact that he had ditched them to spend his lunch break with Kurt under the bleachers. 

“Finally gettin a piece of that, eh hobbit?” Santana was the first one. “Good for you.”

Rachel was next. “Blaine. I understand how you might feel some sort of connection to Kurt given that you are both young, gay males trying to survive an environment that is not always going to be particularly welcoming, however I do think that you should seriously consider what sort of influence Kurt may have on you if you start to spend too much time with him.”

“Why wouldn’t you think that I might have some kind of influence on Kurt?” Blaine asked her. He really wasn’t all that interested in her judgment - of him or of Kurt.

“We’ve all known Kurt since freshman year,” Tina started. “We used to be friends. He was even in glee club for a few months before -”

“Wait.” Kurt had never told him that. “Kurt was in the glee club?”

“He never told you?” Tina asked.

“I don’t know what you guys think is going on, but we haven’t really spent all that much time together. He just - he helped me out on Friday and I -”

“Do you mean he helped you out in a gay way? Because I’d like to hear a little more about that if you don’t mind.”

“Oh my god Santana, no!” Blaine rolled his eyes in exasperation. “Definitely no. Um, a few football players threw a slushie at me, and Kurt happened to be nearby, and he - intervened. And then he helped get me home so I could get cleaned up.”

“Dude who was it?” Puck stood up from where he’d been banging on the drum kit and ignoring them. “I don’t really know you enough to stick up for you, I mean in general, but you’re in glee and I’m always looking to mess some of them up.” A couple of the other boys tentatively agreed. 

“How come we haven’t heard about this?” Rachel asked, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Blaine shrugged, shaking his head. “Kurt got suspended - I don’t know for how long.”

“Hey,” MIke said. He’d been sitting quietly the whole time, listening. “Was it Karofsky? Did he slushy you? Because I saw him this morning and he looked like someone had taken a few swings at his face.”

Blaine nodded. “Yeah. I saw him in the parking lot this morning. I guess he didn’t get suspended for fighting.”

Puck flopped in the chair next to Blaine. “Football players never get suspended. Shitty football is about all this school has going for it.” He held his balled fist up to Blaine. “But congrats on your fist slushy. Marks you as part of the tribe in my book.”

Blaine bumped Puck’s fist with his own, even though he didn’t really understand what there was to be happy about. He really wanted to talk to Tina about Kurt being in the glee club, but Mr. Schuester came in and tried to start class. Blaine put it out of his head for the moment, resolving to ask Kurt about it the next time he saw him. He really wanted the glee club to prepare for Sectionals, too.

xxxxx

**Key**

“ _Kurt!_ ”

Kurt waited in his room for his dad to make his way up the stairs. He wasn’t going to be happy, but they had reached an agreement a year ago that as long as Kurt kept his grades up and went to enough classes to pass Burt wouldn’t make his life too difficult. Burt Hummel knew what his son had been through, and when the school district wouldn’t step in and do the right thing, Burt let Kurt deal with things they way he needed to. 

Still, he was never happy when Kurt got himself suspended.

“Kurt!”

Kurt inhaled deeply. “In my room dad!” 

Burt knocked once and pushed the door open before Kurt could answer. “Would you mind explaining the phone call I got this afternoon? Suspended for fighting?”

Kurt sat up, swinging his legs around until they were hanging over the edge of the bed.

“I got into it a little bit with a few football players on Friday.”

Burt grunted. “I know there’s more to it than that. You know the deal. You tell me everything and I decide exactly how much punishment you’re entitled to.”

Kurt sighed and rubbed his hands over his face, nodding. “Okay. Yeah. I happened to interrupt Karofsky and a couple of goons throwing a slushy on this new kid, and he kinda went into shock - I mean what kind of normal person would expect that, right?” Burt frowned, but gestured for Kurt to go on. “And it seemed like they were going to get a little rough, and the poor kid was just lying on the floor in a ball, so I - stepped in. I landed a few punches and they scattered.” He didn’t need to tell his dad he may have gone a little extra mad on Karofsky’s face.

“When did this happen?”

“Friday. Almost at the end of the day.” Kurt stared at the floor, his hands in his lap. He never wanted to disappoint his dad, but he knew Burt would understand. It didn’t mean there wouldn’t be consequences. “On the plus side, it’s only three days,” Kurt said hopefully.

“Nice try.” Burt set his hand on Kurt’s knee and gave it a squeeze. “No car for a week, and you’re grounded.”

“Dad!” It wasn’t great, but it could have been worse. He was already suspended so he didn’t need to go to school for three days. Kurt was actually getting off easy.

Burt held out his hand. “Car key please.” Kurt stood and fished the key out of his pocket, handing it over to his dad. “And if you’re suspended anyway you can come to the garage and do some work. I’ve got about a dozen oil changes backed up, and Mrs. Peters needs to have her tires rotated.” 

Kurt chuckled. “I think she’d like it a lot more if you did that dad.” Burt cuffed him on the back of the head, but there was nothing behind it.

“Smart ass. You come in with me in the morning, okay?”

Kurt nodded and asked, “Do you want me to make dinner?”

“Nah.” Burt stood and walked toward the door. “I’ll fix us up something.” 

Kurt flopped back onto his bed after his dad left. No car and no school meant no Blaine for two days. That was probably fine. They weren’t really friends. And Blaine had glee club and homework and probably a dozen after school activities to worry about. Kurt didn’t have any of those things.

“Kurt!” His dad was calling up the stairs again - he probably wanted help with dinner after all.

“Coming,” he said as he came down the stairs. “Decide you want me to chop vegetables after all?”

“Nope.” Burt stood in the living room, his arms crossed over his chest and, if Kurt were not seeing things, fighting a smile that threatened to take over his face. “This young man -”

“Blaine, sir.”

“Blaine. Blaine here says he spoke to your teachers and brought your homework for the days you’ll be out.”

“He what?” Kurt looked back and forth between Burt and Blaine, not able to shake the feeling that he had got caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to. Even though that was ridiculous. “You what?” He said to Blaine.

Blaine swallowed. “I, uh, brought your homework.” He dug into his book bag for some papers and Kurt’s history book. 

Kurt glanced at his dad, but Burt was so close to bursting out laughing that he had to look away.

“Um, thanks. I don’t usually do homework though.”

Burt seemed to think he should step in then. “That is not something you should be telling me on the same day you get suspended for half a week. Why don’t you and Blaine go up to your room and go over your homework and I’ll call you down for dinner in about half an hour.” Burt turned to Blaine. “Blaine, would you like to stay for dinner.”

Kurt wanted to crawl under a rock, but Blaine practically beamed. “Thank you, sir, it’s very nice of you to ask. I just have to call my mom and let her know.”

“You do that,” Burt said.

Kurt stared at his dad, biting back a scowl. “Come on,” he said to Blaine. “Let’s go upstairs.”

xxxxx

**Limited**

“Oh my god what are you doing here? How do you even know where I live?” If someone could shout and whisper at the same time Kurt was doing it. 

“I thought -” Blaine paused and Kurt shut the bedroom door.

What he actually thought wasn’t even that complicated. He wanted to see Kurt. Even though Kurt had risked further expulsion by hanging around school to see Blaine at lunch, the idea that Blaine might go another two full days plus some extra without seeing him again made his stomach hurt. Blaine didn’t think it was just because Kurt was gay too, although that certainly was part of it. He couldn’t help it, he was drawn to Kurt and wanted to be around him. 

But he couldn’t say that.

“When I was packing up my homework I remembered that we had a few classes together, so I snuck into the attendance office and used the copier and made copies of the handouts for you.” 

Blaine knew he was blushing. Kurt seemed upset that he was there and he was beginning to think that he had made a mistake. That maybe Kurt didn’t like him like Blaine thought he did. Thought he might. Blaine tugged awkwardly at the strap of his book bag.

Kurt stopped pacing and sat on the edge of his bed, tapping his fingers on the textbook Blaine had brought over.

“I don’t think this is mine.”

Blaine bit his lip. “Um, It’s not. I slipped into Mr. K’s room and took one of the spares. I didn’t know if you had your own.”

Kurt didn’t say anything, just looked at Blaine like he couldn’t figure him out. Then he smiled.

“Do you mean to tell me that not only did you make unauthorized copies on the office copy machine, but you also broke into a classroom and lifted a school book?”

Blaine opened and closed his mouth like a fish. “That’s not exactly what - I’m a student helper, I have limited access to the office resources and -”

Kurt _giggled_. Curved cheeks and dimples and Blaine nearly sputtered. 

“You’ll be a regular law breaking hoodlum before too long Blaine. I must be rubbing off on you already.”

Blaine choked, blushing so hard that his ears were numb. They had to be practically purple and for once he cursed his choice of slicked back hair because there was nothing to hide them under. _You could rub off on me any time you wanted._

“I doubt that,” he managed to mumble. Kurt must have realized that he was still grinning at Blaine, and he looked at his feet. “And It’s okay if you want me to go. I did kind of surprise you.” 

Kurt half-shrugged. “Nah that’s okay. It’s probably good for my dad to think I’m still capable of making friends. He won’t think I’m such a lost cause.”

Blaine frowned. “You’re not a lost cause, why would he think that?”

Kurt waved his hand at himself in a flourish. “And the fighting and the cutting class and the getting suspended. Although that hasn’t happened in over a year.”

Blaine remembered that he wanted to ask Kurt about the disciplinary files, but maybe now wasn’t the best time.

“How’d you know where I live anyway?” Kurt asked. 

“Oh. Um.” Blaine laughed softly. “I peeked in your file?”

“Blaine! I’m almost proud of you.” 

“Yeah well, maybe if you’d give me your phone number I could check in advance to see if you wanted your homework, rather than do all this work and be so unappreciated.” Blaine’s voice cracked and he was shaking. Blaine was being forward and worried Kurt might not want to share that much of himself.

But Kurt just laughed. “Yeah, okay,” and reached his hand out for Blaine’s phone.

When they finally sat down for dinner - which Blaine was surprised to find was a healthy meal of grilled chicken, steamed vegetables and brown rice - Kurt was nervous. 

“This looks great Mr. Hummel. Thanks for inviting me.” Blaine said.

“I’m always happy to have Kurt’s friends around for dinner,” Burt said. “After Kurt’s mom passed we both had to figure our way around the kitchen.” Blaine looked quickly at Kurt, but Kurt was staring at the chicken on his plate, purposefully cutting it into pieces. He didn’t know Kurt’s mom had died. “Kurt picked it up pretty quickly, but I’m finally figuring out how to make stuff he likes.” 

“Well this is very good,” Blaine complimented. 

“Thank you, Blaine.” They made small talk about the food and football - which Blaine knew just enough about to talk to Kurt’s dad, and Kurt listened and relaxed a little. “So have you been at McKinley since freshman year?” Burt asked. “I don’t remember Kurt mentioning you before.”

“No sir. My parents moved here in September. I missed the first two weeks so I’ve been playing a little catch up. But it hasn’t been too bad.”

“So you’re new then?” Burt looked at Kurt, who pointedly avoided his father’s eyes. “What are you doing for fun?”

“Well, I’m in the glee club. They have some talented singers, but they aren’t very disciplined,” Blaine said. Kurt snorted a laugh.

“Glee club, eh?” Burt said, and Blaine saw the expression on Kurt’s face drop as he mouthed ‘no’ to his dad. “Kurt used to be in the glee club, when he started high school.”

“Oh I meant to ask you!” Blaine said. He had almost forgotten. “Tina told me earlier that you had been in glee -” Blaine halted at the murderous look on Kurt’s face. “I was just going to say I didn’t realize you could sing.”

xxxxx

**Mist**

With Sectionals nearly on top of them, the glee club added extra rehearsals, and between homework and rehearsing choreography Blaine was busy more nights than he wasn’t, and he didn’t have a chance to see Kurt as often as he wanted. To be fair he wanted to see Kurt a lot.

Kurt had started to open up a little more around Blaine after the night Blaine stayed for dinner, which had been great. He always texted right back when Blaine texted him, and he even talked a little about when his mom died, and about how the reason he quit glee was because the bullying had got so bad he just couldn’t stand it anymore. So he just dropped out of everything, even though the kids in the glee club hadn’t been the problem. 

Blaine didn’t like to think about Kurt being so sad, but he was happy to be there if Kurt wanted to talk about it now, and he told him so. He didn’t, really, but it made Blaine feel a little more solid at least in their friendship that he’d said anything at all. 

Kurt still wouldn’t sing for him, or join in if they happened to be in the car together, not that it happened all that often. But Kurt didn’t seem to mind if Blaine sang, and that was good, because Blaine loved to sing. It was all he could do to keep himself from singing to Kurt.

It was getting harder and harder to keep his ever growing crush on Kurt from bursting out where everyone could see it. He really didn’t want to mess up being Kurt’s friend.

“Are your parents excited to see you tomorrow?” Kurt asked. They had started having lunch under the bleachers every Friday, weather permitting. Today day was overcast but not too cold.

Blaine shook his head. “They already had plans to be out of town this weekend. So it’s just me.”

“Wow that’s harsh.” Kurt frowned. 

“Eh, it doesn’t matter. I don’t even know if we’ll be any good. If we make it to Regionals then I might kick up a bit more of a fuss.” Blaine finished eating and put all of his trash and plasticware back in his bag. He wanted to ask Kurt if he would come to the competition, but he knew now that Kurt had bad associations with glee club and he wanted to respect that. Maybe he’d invite Kurt to Regionals, if they got that far.

~~~~~

They won Sectionals. Their competition was a group from from Wapakoneta made entirely of left handed construction workers, and a fairly normal show choir from the other side of Lima, but they won and Blaine jumped around on stage with his teammates and it felt good.

Since the competition was at McKinley, Blaine doesn’t have to drive anyone home, or take the bus anywhere, so after their small celebration in the choir room he pulled his bag over his shoulder, waved goodbye, and headed out to the parking lot. 

It was almost late fall in Ohio, and outside the weather was a heavy mist, not even close enough to rain that an umbrella would keep you dry, but still like walking through water anyway. He could barely see three feet in front of him, so he didn’t notice the person leaning up against his car until he was almost on top of it.

“Kurt?” Kurt was here. Waiting for him. “What are you doing here? The weather is terrible - have you been waiting out here for me?”

Kurt shoved his hands into his pockets, looking as bashful as possible with the droplets in the air around them both. “I, um, I came to see your set.”

Blaine dropped his jaw and his bag and threw his arms around Kurt, squeezing the air out of him with a small _oof_.

“I can’t believe you came to see me,” he mumbled, his words muffled by Kurt’s jacket. 

It took Kurt a minute to recover, but he wrapped his arms around Blaine in a tight hug and Blaine practically sunk into him. “I couldn’t bear the thought that you would be up there, singing, and no one who knew you would be there to appreciate it. Blaine you were amazing. You _are_ amazing _._ ” 

Blaine was almost too overwhelmed to say anything. “Thank you, Kurt,” he said as he finally released him, pressing his lips against Kurt’s cheek as he pulled away. He could feel Kurt stiffen as he let go. “It’s okay,” Blaine said. He didn’t even feel shy about it anymore, he just had to say something. “I know you don’t feel that way about me.”

“Blaine, what?” Kurt gripped Blaine’s elbows, not entirely letting him go. “What do you mean - _that way_?” 

“Never mind,” Blaine smiled tightly. “We’re both getting soaked in this not-rain. I should drive you home.”

“Blaine stop.” Kurt put his hands on Blaine’s shoulders, so Blaine did stop. Somehow he summoned the will to tilt his head the fraction he needed to to look into Kurt’s eyes. “ _Blaine.”_ Kurt’s face was covered in droplets of water and his hair was starting to stick to his forehead. “I do like you that way.” 

Blaine swallowed as Kurt looked up, seemingly scanning the parking lot to see who might see them. When he was satisfied he dipped his head, and pressed his lips against Blaine’s. They were salty and covered in rainwater. Blaine pressed closer. 

“Hey,” Kurt said as he pulled away, his forehead resting on Blaine’s as the water seeped to their skin. “I’ve never kissed anyone before.”

Blaine shook his head. “Me either.” He took a deep breath. “And as amazing as that was, and as much as I want to do it again, I’m getting soaked, and so are you. Do you want to go somewhere?”

Kurt nodded excitedly. “Yes. Maybe we should go to your place? If you’re parents still aren’t home.”

Blaine couldn’t believe this was happening. “Okay.”

xxxxx

**Nose**

Kurt was having a hard time remembering how he’d got here. 

Here, he knew, was flat on his back on Blaine Anderson’s couch, in Blaine Anderson’s living room, with Blaine Anderson kissing and kitting licking at his jaw and his throat and his _oh god_ his collarbone. Cute, sweet, nerdy, and by some miraculous miracle gay Blaine Anderson.

He thinks it might have started that day in September when Blaine knocked him down in the hallway. Normally, he’d bloody someone’s nose for less, and had in the past. But Blaine. Blaine looked so genuinely sorry and so dorky hot at the same time that Kurt was caught off guard. He’d given up crushing on straight high school boys when he’d dyed his hair pink - at least when he could control it. Then Blaine looked at him, shock and confusion knitted into his features, and Kurt felt like he’d been zapped by some awkward gay Cupid (because Cupid was of course super gay). 

He asked Brittany later, because there was no way Santana didn’t know if Blaine swung his way, and if Santana knew then Britt knew, and through everything Brittany had always been his friend. 

But however he’d got here, Blaine’s nose was trailing down his sternum, and his hands were smoothing up his thighs. His fingers were teasing at the hem of Kurt’s shirt - the one he’d put on without holes or rude sayings or anything like that, because he wanted to look nice for Blaine. Kurt gasped as Blaine’s nose finally hit the flesh of his stomach. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d wanted to look nice for anyone. 

Blaine was kissing his belly, finally, sweetly, terrifyingly, laying kisses to a part of Kurt he’d thought he’d have to wait years to share with someone. 

“Blaine.” It came out a cracked whisper. He cleared his throat, hands tangled through Blaine’s newly gelled hair (he’d insisted on showering after they got to his house, claiming he was sweaty and gross from performing. Then instead of coming down in sweats and a t-shirt, which Kurt would have understood, he’d dressed in nice jeans and a polo shirt and had even put on a sweet bow tie, telling Kurt that if this turned out to be their first date he wanted to look nice). Kurt kissed him hard after that. And now they were here. 

_That’s_ how he’d got here. He cleared his throat again. “Blaine.”

“Hmmm?” Blaine hummed against his belly button, sucked a kiss into his skin just above his hip bone.

How did he ask what he wanted to know? “How do you know what to do?” Kurt gasped again as Blaine’s fingers trailed up under his shirt and teased a nipple. He was pretty sure that if he just rubbed his dick up on the inside of his jeans a little more he was going to come inside them. “ _Fuck._ ”

Blaine chuckled, looking up at Kurt. His eyes were hazy and black. “I don’t know what I’m doing. I just know what I want to do.” Blaine shifted his weight where his was straddling the one of Kurt’s legs that was stretched out underneath him, moving up so he could kiss Kurt on the mouth. “Like that,” he said when he pulled away. But not far away.

Kurt grinned what he imagined as a stupid, happy grin, then cupped Blaine’s face with his hands and pulled him in for a longer, deeper kiss; one with parted lips and sliding tongues that pulled a soft moan form Blaine’s mouth into his. “Like that?”

xxxxx

**Orgy**

“Kurt,” _kiss_ “Come on” _kiss_ “I thought you said we needed to cool off” _kiss_. Things had progressed quickly on the couch, until the choice was either stop or, uh, _not stop_. So they stopped. Blaine was certain that the masturbatory orgy he planned to indulge in when Kurt finally went home was going to be epic.

“I did,” Kurt practically growled against Blaine’s neck. “You’re not cooling off?” Kurt nipped at the skin just below his ear. Once Kurt had figured out what he wanted to do to Blaine, he hadn’t been shy about it.

“ _Kurt not fair_ ,” Blaine pleaded. He tried to catch Kurt’s wrists, pushing them up and away, but Kurt just shifted his hips so he was pressed harder against Blaine, and Blaine was pressed harder against the kitchen counter. Kurt kissed him again, tongue slipping between Blaine’s lips. 

Blaine whined when Kurt finally pulled away, stepping back out of Blaine’s immediate space. “You said something about a snack?” Kurt said, changing the subject entirely, one corner of his lip teasing up into a smile.

“Um,” Blaine swallowed his nerves. They’d been making out for an hour and he probably really did need to cool off. It was almost dinner time anyway. “Yeah, a snack.”

Blaine made them turkey sandwiches and salads that they ate quickly without saying much, sneaking glances and blushing smiles and playing footsie in socked feet under the table. 

“What time to you have to get home?” Blaine asked while they were cleaning up. His parents weren’t going to be home until later the next night, and he was nervous and excited at the idea that he and Kurt could spend some more time alone together. 

Kurt leaned against the counter next to Blaine, hugging himself. Maybe he was nervous too, Blaine thought. “I don’t really have a curfew.”

“Oh. That’s good I guess?” Not forty five minutes ago he was spread out on top of Kurt on the couch, but that had sort of just happened. Now he wanted to invite Kurt up to his bedroom, maybe get his shirt off, touch more of Kurt’s skin. “Do you want,” his voice cracked, but Kurt just looked at him and didn’t say anything. “Doyouwanttocomeuptomyroom?” Blaine took a breath. “We could watch a movie?”

Kurt smiled then, his eyes sparkling. He nodded once. “Yeah. That sounds nice.”

Blaine didn’t know why he was so nervous. They had made out for an hour on the couch, and Kurt had definitely seemed like he was enjoying it. When they got to his room, Blaine went over to his bed and turned on the lamp on the side table. He didn’t want the brighter overhead light to ruin whatever mood they might have. Did Kurt think there was a mood? Maybe he was being presumptuous. God he was losing it - _get it together Blaine_.

“Do you have a preference?” He turned to ask Kurt, but Kurt was staring at Blaine’s neatly made bed. He looked at Blaine with wide eyes.

“What?”

“A preference. For a movie?” Blaine said. “We can watch on the TV or I can just bring my laptop over to the bed.”

“Oh!” Kurt laughed a high pitch laugh. “I thought you -” he waved at the bed. “Never mind.” Kurt covered his face with both his hands. “Never mind.”

Blaine could feel his face heat up. “Oh my god, no, Kurt. I mean, not that I’m not interested -” Kurt choked out another laugh, “I mean, we just, uh kissed for the first time, that seems a little fast.” Kurt was giggling now. “Oh god I should just stop talking.” Blaine moved to walk past Kurt so he could grab his laptop, but Kurt stopped him with a hand on his arm.

“Hey.” 

“I’m sorry I’m such a dork, I don’t know why I’m so nervous now. I wasn’t nervous earlier, I just, I like you and here you are and -” 

“Blaine,” Kurt interrupted. He put his hands on Blaine’s shoulders, turning him to they were facing each other. Blaine hummed. “I’m nervous too.”

xxxxx

**Perform**

If making out with Blaine on the couch had been amazing then making out with Blaine on his bed was otherworldly. 

They had started out lying on their sides, a respectful distance apart, just kissing. But then Blaine started making _noises_ and pushing his hands up under Kurt’s t-shirt and _tugging_ \- like what he wanted was for Kurt to lie on top of him, and Kurt was pretty close to being unable to stop himself from just _doing it_. There was only one thing in his way. He pulled away from Blaine’s lips with a smack, rewarding Blaine’s soft protest with a quick peck. 

“Can I take this off?” Kurt pulled at Blaine’s bow tie. Kissing Blaine’s mouth and jaw and the spot behind his ear was nice, but Kurt wanted more. Kurt was dying to get his mouth on Blaine’s neck, and hopefully other parts.

Blaine nodded and fumbled one handed at the tie. “Let me,” Kurt said, slipping his hand into Blaine’s and moving it to rest on the bed between them, then shifting to his knees so he could use both hands on the knot. “I used to know how to do this,” he said, pulling until he loosened it enough to pull the tie over Blaine’s head.

“Can I take off your shirt?” Blaine asked, dragging his nails over the skin of Kurt’s back, then pulling at the hem of his shirt until it reached Kurt’s shoulders. Kurt ducked his head and Blaine pulled it all the way off. 

“Not fair,” Kurt said. “You need to be half-naked with me.” Blaine scrambled to sit up so fast he nearly knocked Kurt over backward. Blaine pulled his polo over his head and dropped to the bed, lying down on his back. Kurt knew Blaine was in good shape - he’d seen Blaine perform, and he’d felt him up over his shirt, so the defined muscles of Blaine’s chest and arms didn’t exactly surprise him. Blaine lying shirtless underneath him? That was a new perspective. “You look amazing,” he breathed.

Blaine shook his head. “I’m all hairy, and you’re -” Blaine ran his hands over Kurt’’s bare chest, down to his waist, then around his back. He swallowed. “You’re not.”

“I like it.” Kurt dropped a kiss in the middle of Blaine’s chest. “You’re hot,” he mumbled against Blaine’s skin. It wasn’t that much hair, just a dusting across Blaine’s chest, around his nipples. Kurt groaned and finally did what he’d been thinking about all night. He put his mouth on Blaine’s body. 

“Closer.” Blaine gripped Kurt’s hips finally, gloriously, pulling Kurt down on top of him, untangling his legs and wrapping them around Kurt’s thighs. 

“Fuck, Blaine.” Kurt found Blaine’s lips again, and everything moved so fast after that. He was hard, and he could _feel_ Blaine was hard _,_ and he was wriggling and thrusting underneath Kurt, and his hands were moving all over Kurt’s back. They were going to have to stop soon because after almost-but-not-getting-off-on-the-couch, Kurt was getting too close too fast and he wasn’t sure he could stop again. “Blaine. Blaine, _wait_.” He tried to push up and off, but Blaine had other ideas, moaning a _nooo_ and gripping Kurt’s ass with both hands, grinding up into Kurt’s erection until Kurt couldn’t do anything but bury his face in Blaine’s neck and come.

“I’m sorry, oh my god, Kurt, I didn’t mean to -” 

Kurt didn’t know how long it took him to realize Blaine was saying something, but it was probably only a few dozen seconds. He hoped it was. Kurt pushed himself up on his arms only realizing as he got to his knees that Blaine had come too. Kurt ran a hand through his hair, pushing it out of his face.

“I couldn’t stop, Kurt I’m so sorry, I-”

Kurt put his hand over Blaine’s mouth. “It’s okay.” Blaine made a noise and Kurt moved his hand. “Are you okay?”

Blaine nodded. “Yeah, I - you wanted to stop, but I - I couldn’t stop, I’m sorry.” He shook his head again. 

“Don’t apologize, Blaine that was amazing.” Blaine was licking his lips nervously so Kurt dropped a kiss on them. “I mean, a little unexpected.” He pushed up and rolled over onto his back. “But awesome. I’m not complaining.” Kurt huffed a laugh. “Next time, though -” he waved in the general area of the front of his pants. “Next time we should try it without pants on.”

‘“Okay.” Blaine smiled. “Next time.” Blaine hopped off the bed, pulling two fresh pairs of underwear out of his drawer, and handing one to Kurt. “I’m going to go, uh, cleanup,” he said, pointing toward his bathroom. 

Kurt cleaned up and changed, but didn’t bother putting his jeans back on. They were a little gross. Blaine came out of the bathroom wearing sweatpants, but still shirtless. 

“Do you still want to watch a movie?” he asked. “It’s not that late.” 

“Sure.” 

~~~~~

Kurt blinked awake, not recognizing his surroundings right away, but hearing his phone buzz on a table next to the bed. Blaine was sound asleep next to him. Kurt smirked to himself as he grabbed his phone off the table. There were four texts and three missed calls from his dad. 

“Oh shit.” Kurt scrambled up, frantically tugging on his jeans and t-shirt.

Blaine rolled over, yawning and rubbing his eyes. “Kurt? What time is is?” 

“Almost two in the morning,” Kurt huffed. “I’m so screwed.”

xxxxx

**Raw**

Blaine spent most of Sunday in a fog of nervous worry. 

After Kurt had scrambled out of his bedroom in the middle of the night with barely a word, Blaine had gone back to sleep, expecting Kurt would text him or something once he got home. When he woke to no messages Blaine sent off a text, just to say good morning. 

By one in the afternoon Blaine had done all of his homework, washed his jeans and underwear (and Kurt’s underwear) and the cover from his bed, all the time thinking about what had happened between them. He’d made sandwiches to take for lunch for the first two days of the week, and even laid out his clothes for the entire week. But he hadn’t heard anything from Kurt.

Blaine tried not to panic. There had to be dozens of reasons why Kurt hadn’t texted him yet, and none of them had to be because he’d got into a car accident on the way home or had been abducted by aliens in the Meijer’s parking lot, or had completely changed his mind and didn’t like Blaine at all and never wanted to see him or talk to him (or kiss him or touch him) or anything ever again. Dozens of reasons. But he was having a hard time thinking of any. He texted Kurt again.

**Can you let me know if you’re ok? I’m a little worried.**

Since his parents weren’t going to be home until the evening, he didn’t even have someone to talk to about unimportant things, just to keep his mind busy. For one brief, desperate moment Blaine considered calling Rachel Berry to see if she wanted to come over and brainstorm possible duets for Regionals, and had got as far as looking up her name on his phone before coming to his senses and not doing that. 

He tried to watch a movie, but when he opened his laptop it was still curled up to Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and Blaine remembered how Kurt had reached over him to pick the movie, his bare chest and legs and arms all pressed up teasingly behind Blaine. He tried to rub at the raw feeling in his chest to make the worry go away. It didn’t work.

The only explanation was that Kurt must regret what they did, or, worse, he didn’t think much of it at all. Blaine was too nerdy, with his good grades and glee club and perfect attendance record. And it had all happened so fast, Kurt had probably thought it was just a good time - it couldn’t be serious. Right?

By the time his parents finally got home, Blaine wasn’t really in the mood to be distracted anymore, but he listened to his mother tell him about their weekend, and sat up to watch the eleven o’clock news with his dad so he could avoid lying awake in the dark and wondering what he would do if he saw Kurt at school tomorrow. At least there was no guarantee he’d even have to see him, if Kurt didn’t bother to show up. Too bad he couldn’t put off going to bed all night. He sent Kurt one more text.

**I’m sorry, again. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I just want to know if you’re ok.**

After a hot shower - in which he pointedly refused to touch himself because it just felt too depressing to do _that_ right now, he threw on the most soothing playlist he had and pulled the covers over his head, hoping it might help him fall asleep.

And it almost worked. Blaine was on the verge of falling asleep, fading in and out of a dream where he was the captain of the Dalton Academy Warblers Academic Competition Team competing in the Southern Ohio High School Quiz bowl. He knew all the answers, but he kept buzzing in too late to answer them. At one point Blaine missed the buzzer on a question about Fermat’s theorem that he would never have known while he was awake, slamming his hand onto his phone thinking it was the buzzer. That woke him up. 

“Dammit,” he whispered to the dark.

His phone buzzed again, and this time Blaine realized he hadn’t dreamed the sound. He’d given up on getting a text from Kurt, after hearing nothing all day, but when he unlocked the screen there were multiple texts, all from Kurt.

_Blaine? are u up?_

_My dad took my phone last ngiht, I couldn’t call you_

_I had to wrk at the shop all day and he just gave it back to me 5 minutes ago_

Blaine looked at the time. It was 12:08. He sat up, rubbing his face, his heart thumping triple time from coming suddenly awake and thoughts of Kurt.

_Oh, and I have a curfew now._

**Curfew?**

_Yr up!_

**I wasn’t. I had a weird dream and I heard the phone buzz.**

_Oh ok. I’m sorry about hte silent treatment._

**You are a terrible typer.**

**And it’s okay. I just -**

_My dad figured it out_

**Figured what out?**

_Um, why I was late_

**OMG. He’s going to kill me. Is he going to kill me?**

_He won’t. But I got a lecture. And pamphlets._

**Pamphlets??**

_I’ll tell you tomorrow. I’ll see you tomorrow? At school?_

**I’m not the one who cuts class Kurt**

_Under the bleachers. Meet me there at lunch. Goodnight Blaine._

**Night**

xxxxx

**Stir**

“Hi Blaine.” 

Tina was waiting for him at his locker when he arrived at school the next day, just like she did every morning. As if everything was the same as the last time she’d seen him. Blaine supposed that to her everything was. 

“Hi Tina,” Blaine smiled at her as he opened his locker. “Did you have a nice rest of the weekend?” He hoped she couldn’t hear the disappointment in his voice, Blaine hadn’t really expected that Kurt would be there to see him in the morning, but it hadn’t stopped him from hoping. 

“Just the usual.”

“Homework,” Blaine said, knowingly. Tina’s parents put a lot of pressure on her to get good grades. “Did you finish the outline for Cresswell? I was having some trouble with the medieval section.” Tina filled him in as they walked to class, taking her seat next to him just before the bell rang.

After collecting the homework, their teacher had just started going over the outline for their next short paper when the door to the classroom opened and Kurt slid in. 

“Why Mr. Hummel, what a surprise!” Blaine could see Kurt offer the teacher a mock smile. “To what do we owe the pleasure this morning?” 

Kurt pulled out a class schedule, as if he were a new student just joining them 8 weeks into the school year rather than someone who’d been a student the entire time.

“I’m supposed to be here.” Kurt waved the paper in front of him.

“Did they just bother telling you now?” The teacher snatched the paper out of Kurt’s hand, read it for a brief few seconds, then handed it back with an annoyed expression. “Well then. Why don’t you just take a seat in the back for now.” Kurt shrugged, but looked at Blaine and winked. Blaine could feel his face flush and knew Tina was staring at him. 

“What was that about?” Tina whispered, leaning heavily into Blaine’s space. Blaine shook his head. He didn’t want to say anything, not in class, but he wasn’t exactly sure what to tell her, either. _Oh nothing, we had sex this weekend but it’s fine. I’m fine._ Blaine did not feel fine. He felt a little nauseated. Although it could just as easily been from excitement as trepidation. 

Kurt kept looking at him as he made his way down the aisle, but instead of sitting in an empty seat in the back, Kurt stopped just behind Blaine and stared at the kid sitting in the next row until _he_ got up and moved to the back. Blaine didn’t turn around to look, though he could see every other person in class was watching Kurt sit down. 

Once everyone had settled down and class finally got started, Blaine felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, several times. He had a feeling they were form Kurt, but there was no way he was going to check until class was over. There had already been enough commotion for one hour.

Their teacher kept Kurt behind after class, so Blaine excused himself quickly once the bell rang, making an excuse to Tina about needing the boys room, which is where he found himself locked in a stall two minutes later, checking his messages. 

_Hi Blaine! I came to class_

_I tried to get to school early, but Im out of practice getting up in time_

_i have a great view of your ass when you move around on yout chair._

_I may have to come to class evry day_

Blaine could feel his face heat up. He still didn’t know what kurt wanted. They weren’t boyfriends when they fooled around, were they boyfriends now? If he asked Kurt, would Kurt think he was too much of a dork to still want to see him? Overthinking this was going to stir up his anxiety, Blaine was sure.

When the bell for lunch period finally rang, Blaine sneaked out to meet Kurt under the bleachers, as planned. As he approached, he could see Kurt sitting on one of the old couches, huddled into himself. Blaine frowned. He’d seemed a lot more animated in class that morning.

“Hey,” he said, when he’d got close enough. Blaine could see Kurt relax, as if his entire body had been wound up like a top, and someone had finally sprung it, causing him to leap into the air.

“Blaine!” Kurt came close, reaching for Blaine before pulling his hand back. 

Blaine swallowed. “Is everything okay?”

Kurt shrugged, but it wasn’t as casual a gesture as it could have been. “I wasn’t sure you were coming.”

“You asked me to.” Blaine gripped at the strap of his bag. Should he not have? “Did you not want me to?”

“Did you not want to?” Kurt looked nervous. “You never answered my messages.”

Oh. “I wanted to. Want to.” Blaine took a step closer. “I always want to spend time with you.” Kurt blushed and looked away. “Is that stupid? I’m sorry.” Blaine turned away. “You probably don’t want, I mean, we didn’t say we were boyfriends.” Blaine shook his head, muttering _I’m so stupid_ under his breath. 

“Wait, Blaine.” Kurt stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “Is that - do you want that? I mean, I - we’re friends, and then _that_ happened -” Kurt waved his hand in some unknowable gesture. “This weekend, I mean. It happened.”

“It did.” Blaine worried his hands over his bag strap again. “And, I mean, I understand if that’s not something you want, you know, with me, but I -” Blaine wriggled, pent up nervous energy starting to get the better of him. “If you don’t think I’m too much of a geek, I mean,” Blaine finished, not entirely sure if he’d said what he wanted to. “I would want that, if you do.”

The smile that broke out on Kurt’s face nearly knocked Blaine over. 

“I want that,” he said, his voice high and breathless. “Can I kiss you now?”

Blaine nodded, grinning, dropping his bag onto the ground as Kurt cupped his face in both hands. “Please.”

Xxxxx

**Talk**

At first things were amazing. Kurt came to school (most days), and to class (sometimes). He waited around for Blaine at his locker, and, if no one was around, Kurt would kiss him in the parking lot before they had to go home. Kurt had somehow even convinced Principal FIggins that Blaine was the right person to help tutor him in all of his classes so he could catch up with his school work. 

Blaine had been pleased to discover that Kurt was still carrying an average in the mid-80’s in most of his classes, and the only thing that had really been holding him back was his lack of attendance in any of them. Still, it turned out to be a good excuse to spend evenings at Kurt’s house, even if with Kurt’s dad at home they couldn’t spend much time on less innocent pursuits.

As the week went on, though, Blaine could sense that something was off at school. After the slushie incident, the worst of the football players had more or less left him alone. Now that he and Kurt were being public about the fact that they were dating, they were getting the occasional odd look in the hallways. Kurt seemed to revel in it a little. It just made Blaine nervous.

~~~~~

“Kurt,” Blaine pulled away with a tiny sigh, hands they had just moments before been gripping Kurt’s hips and pulling them close now pushing them apart. 

It was Thursday after glee rehearsal, and after a week of holding back in public Kurt had finally got Baine pressed up against his car, and he intended to take advantage of it. 

“ _Blaine._ ” Kurt knew it sounded like a whine. “I want to kiss you. I like the way your lips looks after I kiss you.” Blaine’s tongue ran along his bottom lip, and Kurt had to really restrain himself to keep from diving back in. 

“How do they look?” Blaine fluttered his eyelashes awkwardly, but it just made Kurt want to push Blaine into the back seat of the car and maul him.

Kurt sucked his own bottom lip between his teeth and touched his thumb to Blaine’s mouth. “They look like I’m supposed to kiss them, they look -”

Before Kurt could finish, he was interrupted by a truck horn honking and screaming coming from inside the truck.

“That’s disgusting!”

“Take that homo shit out of my sight!”

“If I have to see that again I’m going to stop it myself!”

Blaine flinched, turning his head away from the truck and into Kurt’s arm. Kurt pulled Blaine closer, but took a step toward the truck and flipped them off. 

“Come over here and stop us then!” He shouted, but they just sped up and drove away and out of the parking lot.

“Kurt no,” Blaine pulled him back. “Let it go.”

“I’ll let them go, but I’m not letting it go, no way,” Kurt answered. “Every straight couple in this school subjects us to their endless PDA. I got an eyeful of Quinn Fabray’s side-boob just this morning. It’s not fair that I can’t even kiss you in the parking lot when no one’s around.”

Blaine put his arms around Kurt’s shoulders, pulling him closer. “I know, it sucks. I just don’t want you to get hurt.” Kurt leaned in and let Blaine kiss him. 

“I can take care of myself.” 

Blaine nodded against his forehead. “I know you can. I just don’t want you to have to.”

~~~~~

Kurt got to school Friday morning just in time to meet Blaine at his locker before second period. He made a mental note to try to get there in time for first period on Monday, maybe if he could get there before class started he and Blaine could spend some time in the back seat of Blaine’s Volvo before class even got started. 

After slipping through the door nearest the cafeteria in order to avoid having to check in with the office for being late, Kurt rushed down the long corridor toward Blaine’s locker. Blaine was standing at his open locker, talking to Tina and swapping out his text book. In the same moment that Blaine noticed Kurt, Kurt watched Dave Karofsky walk right past Blaine, catching him off guard and shoving him, hard into the bank of lockers. 

“ _Hey!_ ” Kurt tore down the hall, stopping for a moment to check on Blaine, but Tina rushed him off.

“I’ve got this - go get him,” she said, unconcealed rage in her eyes. Kurt nodded and took off after Karofsky, finding him alone in the boys locker room.

“What the fuck was that asshole!” He shouted, shoving Dave against the bank of gym lockers. Kurt didn’t have nearly the same weight behind him as Dave did, so instead of crumpling to the ground like Blaine did (and Kurt would never get that image out of his head), he just spun around, turning back to face Kurt.

“You and your _boyfriend_ need to get your gay outta my face Hummel!” Dave’s face was red, and he was getting into Kurt’s space.

“We have just as much right to be here as you do you ridiculous meathead!” Kurt shoved at Dave’s shoulder. “I’m going to make sure you get expelled for what you just did. Why can’t you just mind your own fucking business!”

“You just need to stop!” Dave half-shouted, and Kurt flinched as Dave slammed his hand against a locker right next to Kurt’s ear. Kurt watched Dave’s face contort, but before he could determine if it was in anger or disgust, Dave grabbed Kurt’s face in both hands and kissed him, hard, on the mouth. 

Kurt wasn’t sure how many seconds it took him to realize what was happening, but he managed to get Dave off balance and use his weight to throw him to the floor between the bench and the lockers.

“ _Oh my god_.” Kurt froze, staring as Dave attempted to scrambled to his feet. “Holy _shit_.” Kurt ran out before Dave could stand.

He needed to find Blaine. The halls were empty, so he ran to his second period class. Pulling open the door, he saw Blaine and Tina’s seats were empty. He must have looked frantic enough, because their teacher didn’t even give him a hard time. “They’re in the nurse’s office.” 

When he got there Blaine was lying on the worn out exam table, with Tina standing next to him holding an ice pack to his shoulder. “He’s got a huge bruise,” Tina said. “His shoulder jammed into a lock and -”

“Blaine,” Kurt interrupted. He ignored the slightly perturbed look on Tina’s face. “We have to talk.”

xxxxx

**Underline**

“Kurt what’s wrong?” Blaine sat up, gently stopping Tina from fussing over him. 

“Can you leave?” Kurt asked. He was breathing hard and looking behind him, like he was being chased.

Blaine had never seen Kurt so agitated; not when he’d gotten into fights at school or even when his dad had invited Blaine to dinner without any warning whatsoever. 

“Yeah, okay,” Blaine answered, gingerly hopping off of the nurses table.

“Blaine what are you doing?” Tina stepped in between them. “You can’t leave the nurse has to sign you out to a parent.” She eyed Kurt suspiciously. “Why are you doing this Kurt? Blaine is a nice person why can’t you just leave him out of your problems?”

Kurt ignored her and looked at Blaine, his eyes pleading. “Blaine please.”

“Tina it’s fine.” He gave her a pat on her shoulder before following Kurt out of the nurses office and down the hall.

Kurt didn’t say anything while they walked to Blaine’s car. Once they were inside he shoved his hands into his hair and let out a scream. 

“Kurt? What happened?” 

Kurt knocked his head back against the headrest, turning to look at Blaine.

“Karofsky kissed me.”

“He _what_?” 

Kurt bounced in his seat, turning his body around so he was facing Blaine, his left leg pulled up underneath him. “I know! I would never have guessed! It’s totally insane right?” Blaine sat quietly, listening as Kurt told him what happened after he chased Karofsky into the locker room. By the time finished he was shaking with anger or fear or both, he wasn’t sure.

“Kurt, you’re lucky he didn’t hurt you, you have to tell someone. Principal Figgins, maybe?”

Kurt scoffed. “Figgins isn’t going to believe anything I say. I’ve cheesed him off too many times in the past two years.” He shook his head. “Besides Karofsky’s probably got a huge bruise on his ass where it hit the bench when I pushed him off of me.” Kurt gestured to himself with a humorless smirk. “No marks on me.”

“Kurt he _assaulted_ you.” Blaine didn’t want to let this go. It wasn’t right that on top of every other horrible thing they’d both had to put up with, Kurt would have to accept this too. 

“He does it to you and the other glee club kids every day Blaine - in front of everyone! and no one does anything. They aren’t going to do anything about it now.” Kurt paused, and Blaine watched as the expression on his face fell. Kurt slumped back in the car seat. “He must be terrified.” 

Blaine inhaled, letting out a slow breath as he looked out the windshield at the parking lot full of cars. There were a few students roaming around - against the rules of course, a lone security guard leaning against the exit nearer the football fields. Blaine wasn’t sure he wasn’t asleep. He thought about what Kurt had had to do to protect himself from being targeted. He knew Kurt wasn’t wrong about that. And they both knew what it meant to struggle with feelings you didn’t want to have. Blaine wanted to be sympathetic, but he needed both he and Kurt to stay safe. 

“But Kurt he’s always been part of the problem,” Blaine said. He reached a hand across the console and slipped it into Kurt’s willing palm. Kurt just shrugged and played with Blaine’s fingers. “Okay. What do you want to do about it?”

“Nothing. At least not now.” Kurt looked at Blaine, a corner or his mouth quirking up just a fraction. “I couldn’t convince you to cut the rest of the day, could I?” Blaine was considering saying yes, when Kurt added, “because I could really use a nap.” Blaine raised an eyebrow. “Come on. Fourth period has already started. Just nap through lunch with me then you can go back to class and get your homework and go to glee club or whatever.”

Blaine pretended to consider the idea, but he knew he was going to give in to Kurt’s request; a nap actually sounded really good. “Okay, but you have to come to class with me this afternoon -” Kurt started to object, but Blaine held up a hand. “And let me drive you home, okay? I don’t want you to be alone in case Karofsky comes after you again.”

Kurt’s eyes flashed delight. “Deal.” 

Blaine was about to get out of the car and put the back seat down, so they had enough room to lie comfortably, but before he could Kurt scrambled over the seat and stretched out in the back, patting the seat next to him. Blaine sighed, rolling his eyes, but he climbed over the seat and joined Kurt in the back. 

“You’re insane you know,” Blaine said, as he stretched out on top of him.

~~~~~

Blaine woke just in time to get them both to class, stopping first at his locker to grab some textbooks and a spare granola bar he kept in there to eat before glee that he split with Kurt. He was in such a rush he almost didn’t see the note that fell out onto the floor. 

“What’s this?” Kurt said, picking it up. “I hope it’s a cheat sheet for the chem exam next week.”

“It is not a cheat sheet Kurt. You know I would never—“

“Blaine,” Kurt interrupted. He was holding the scrap of paper out for Blaine, so he took it. It was a not in tiny, cramped, teenage boy writing:

_Tell your boyfriend if he says anything I will kill you._

xxxxx

**Variation**

“Why did he leave that in my locker?”

Kurt had convinced Blaine to skip their next class after finding the note, and they were out under the bleachers leaning against the fence. Kurt really just wanted to find Karofsky and break his nose.

“Obviously he knows I care a lot more about what he’ll do to you than to me.” Kurt was flipping an unlit cigarette between his fingers. He wanted to light it, but he’d told Blaine he’d stop, and that even if he had a craving he wouldn’t do it around Blaine. But it really seemed like now was a good time for a cigarette. “And if he put it in my locker it’d be a week at least before I found it.” Kurt snapped the cigarette in half and threw it on the ground.

“He isn’t going to kill me Kurt, he just wants to threaten us, keep us scared. Like bullies always do. It’s just another variation on the same theme.” Blaine looked right at Kurt when he said this, and Kurt knew he was pretending not to be terrified. Kurt also knew that he was. “I’m not going to sit back and wait for someone to jump me in a parking lot.” Blaine crossed his arms over his chest defiantly. Kurt’s heart ached. “Not again.”

“Okay,” Kurt said, nodding as he stepped closer. He put his hands on Blaine’s shoulders, squeezing them before moving them to cup Blaine’s face and pulling him into a kiss. He didn’t mean for it to go anywhere, he just wanted Blaine to know that he would be there, that he was with him no matter what he wanted. 

But Blaine sighed into it, and Kurt could feel the tension drain out of his body as he untangled his arms and wrapped them around Kurt’s waist. “ _Kurt._ ”

“Hey -” Kurt pulled away, just enough for a breath between them. “Are you okay?” Blaine’s eyes were shut tight, and Kurt didn’t want to notice the tears trying to escape the corners. “Do you want to get out of here?” Blaine shook his head, sucking a gasping breath before finally blinking his eyes open with a long exhale. 

“I have to go to class, and glee - I can’t miss it.” Blaine sniffled a little and Kurt offered up his sleeve for Blaine to wipe his nose. “Oh god.” He choked out a laugh. “That’s gross Kurt,” he said before pulling a handkerchief out of his pocket. 

Kurt rolled his eyes. “How did I not know you carried a handkerchief?”

Blaine finished wiping his face, then folded the handkerchief neatly and slipped it back into his front pocket. “There are a lot of things we still don’t really know about each other.” 

Kurt supposed that was true, but he knew important things about Blaine. The most important things. He shrugged. “We’ll just have to spend more time together then.” 

“Okay.” Blaine almost smiled, nodding. “I really should get to class now. I’ll have to get all my assignments from Tina.” 

“I guess if you really want to do all that homework.”

“I do, and you can do it with me. While we’re spending time together,” Blaine teased.

Kurt pretended to scoff, but it didn’t sound like such a bad deal to him, really. But there was one thing he still needed to know.

“Before we get out of here: do you want to report the note?” Kurt wasn’t ready to out Karofsky, but he’d do it before he let Blaine get hurt.

Blaine shook his head once. “No, not unless he touches you again.”

“Blaine I can take care of mys—“

“No Kurt — I mean, I know you can. But what he did? That’s not okay.” Blaine was getting worked up again; Kurt would agree to anything right now to keep him calm. “If it happens again we tell someone, even if it’s only your dad. Please Kurt.”

Kurt took a minute, but he agreed.

~~~~~

“What are you doing here?” Tina practically accosted Blaine when he walked into the choir room. “Didn’t Kurt take you home? I told the nurse you went home. She was pretty angry that you didn’t wait for her to sign you out.”

Blaine knew she was worried, but he really didn’t need Tina’s judgment. Rachel sat next to him, her face radiating put-on concern. He didn’t need Rachel’s judgment either.

“Blaine what happened?” Rachel sat next to him, looking into his eyes as if she could see his entire morning in them.

“Nothing.” He really didn’t want to talk to Rachel about it. “And I’m fine Tina. It’s just a bruise.” He lifted his arm over his head to prove it didn’t hurt. It took a lot of effort not to wince. 

“Karofsky shoved him into a locker this morning - hard,” Tina answered. 

“Someone say Karofsky?” Puck sauntered in and joined the conversation. “My car died this morning and giving that guy a beat down would do a lot to brighten my mood.”

“No, don’t - don’t do that, not on my account,” Blaine interjected. “He was just being his usual horrible self.”

“Yeah, that’s the thing,” Puck continued. “It would make me feel great, helping you out would just be a bonus.” Puck held out a curled fist and Blaine obliged with an awkward bump, but he still didn’t want Puck to do anything. He was about to say as much to Puck when Mr. Schuester came in and they had to stop talking about it. 

It turned out that they had to learn two new dance routines in one session, and the physical exertion helped Blaine clear his head, so by the time glee ended Blaine felt a lot better. Unfortunately he also felt sweaty and disgusting. If he took a shower now he could hang out with Kurt for a while without feeling gross or smelling bad.

“I think I’m going to hit she shower before I leave,” Blaine told Tina as they were walking out of the choir room. “I feel gross and if I wait until I get home I’ll just want to take a nap after and I won’t get any homework done.” 

“Blaine! What if Karofsky finds you in there?”

Blaine could admit to himself he was a little concerned about that, but football practice didn’t end for at least another hour, and he’d be in and out in under fifteen minutes. He told Tina as much. 

“I think we should wait for you,” Rachel offered. “In case someone needs to run and get help.”

“Thanks ladies, but I don’t think that’ll be necessary.” Kurt peeled himself off of the wall he’d been leaning against, just a few yards ahead of them in the hall. Blaine bit his lip to hide a smile. “I can’t imagine he’d start something with both of us at the same time.”

“Quickie in the school locker room - very nice.” Puck wandered past them. “I’m definitely impressed.” He tossed a thumbs up as he kept walking. “Very risky.”

“Oh my god - we’re not -” Blaine sputtered, but Puck was already out of earshot. He looked at Tina, who was definitely not impressed. “We are not,” Blaine told her. Kurt snickered behind him. “Kurt!”

Kurt shrugged, clearly enjoying encouraging this stain on Blaine’s reputation. “If you say so,” he smirked. 

xxxxx

**Width**

Kurt followed Blaine into the locker room, checking around corners to see if anyone was there. It was empty, and the entire football team appeared to be out on the field. Not even the junior assistant water boy was hanging around.

“I don’t know how I feel about you being out here by yourself while I’m in the shower,” Blaine said. He had a worried look on his face. “What if Karofsky comes in here? I’m not going to be much help naked and dripping wet.”

Kurt smirked. “Are you sure about that?” He asked, grabbing Blaine’s ass for emphasis. “Maybe I should join you in the shower? No one is going to bother us if we’re both in there together.” Kurt ran a finger up Blaine’s arm. “Besides, I can handle that neanderthal, especially now that I know what he’s been hiding.” 

Blaine pushed him away, still wary but playful, and Kurt followed him down the aisles of lockers until they found an empty one far away from the showers, but nearer the coach’s office. None of the team ever picked lockers near there. Kurt leaned up against the locker bank and watched Blaine put his things in the locker and start to undress. When he got down to his boxers and a t-shirt he shut the locker, snapping his gym lock in place so no one could get to his things.

“We could always just leave Blaine. Drive to your house and you can get cleaned up there, then we can go somewhere else and hang out.”

Blaine shook his head tightly. “My mom’s home. If I go home she’s going to give me a hard time about leaving again.” He looked at Kurt. “And I don’t think she’s ready to let you hang out in my bedroom while I take a shower. So that plan only works if you want to hang out with my mom then watch game shows in the den until my dad gets home.” Kurt snorted a quiet ‘no thanks.’

He followed Blaine to the shower, where Blaine grabbed a clean towel off the stack of the stack the school provided for the football team. Blaine hung the towel up on a hook right outside the shower stall, then slipped his arms through his sleeves and pulled his t shirt up over his head. Kurt swallowed. They’d only gotten off together the once; they’d found time to make out here and there, but they hadn’t been able to manage a lot of time alone, and Kurt had spent a lot of time by himself thinking about what he wanted to do the next time they had time for, well, for more.

Blaine caught him looking. “Like what you see?” He teased. 

“Yes.” Kurt wasn’t teasing at all, and he noticed Blaine shiver. “Maybe you should hurry up and do that so we can get out of here.”

“Yeah, um.” Blaine hung his t-shirt then stepped into the stall and pulled the cheap plastic curtain. Blaine shuffled a little and stuck his arm out and hung up his underwear. Kurt stifled a groan. He knew for a fact that Puckerman had had sex in the school locker room with at least two different girls - one a cheerleader from a rival high school during a football game, but his nerdy-hot boyfriend was naked less than ten feet away and there wasn’t anything he could do about it. Life was unfair.

Kurt dragged a folding chair from outside the coach’s office so he could sit outside the showers and listen to Blaine, who was singing - not loudly, but Kurt loved the sound of his voice. He was only a little jealous that Blaine had managed to navigate his way through doing the things he loved even though they had similar obstacles stacked against them. Kurt had accepted the outcome of his choices, at least for now, and he knew in the long run they wouldn’t matter. He’d move to New York and none of this would matter. Maybe he could even talk Blaine into coming with him.

Blaine hadn’t been in the shower long when the equipment attendant came in from the field.

“What are you doing in here?” He looked nervous.

Kurt picked at his nails, not looking at the attendant. 

“Getting a pedicure.” Kurt really didn’t feel like he owed this kid any information.

“The team is coming in, in, like, five minutes. You shouldn’t be here.”

Kurt rolled his eyes. “Whatever. As soon as he’s done -” Kurt flipped a thumb toward the showers, “We’ll be out of here.”

“Who else is in here?” Now he was full on panicked. “No one is supposed to be in here during practice, without supervision.”

“I’m supervising.” 

“I gotta go tell the coach,” he spit out, then ran out back toward the field. 

Kurt waited for hims to leave, then rushed to Blaine’s shower stall. “Blaine? We should get moving. They football team’ll be swarming in here in about 4 minutes.”

“Okay, I’m done.” He stuck his arm out, and Kurt handed him the towel. Blaine grabbed his clothes and followed Kurt to the locker holding his other thing. Kurt turned around so he could get dressed, and Blaine had his jeans and t-shirt on by the time the football players started to stream in. 

“What are you doing here Hummel?” 

“Not waiting for you, if that’s what you were hoping,” Kurt sneered, just low enough for no one but Karofsky to hear. Dave’s face went beet red, but Kurt just crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for Blaine to gather his things and put on his shoes. He could tell from the sounds behind him that Blaine was rushing. 

“You need to shut up,” Dave growled, his hands curling into fists. “One word and I will pummel both of you.” More members of the football team had come into the locker room, but they were mostly isolated from them where they were standing. 

“Think hard about that David,” Kurt kept his arms close, but he was hoping Coach Beiste was in the locker room, somewhere nearby. He didn’t trust any of these other meatheads, but he knew she wouldn’t put up with anything from anyone on her team. “Is it really worth risking your spot on the team just to put your hands on me.” Kurt knew he was pushing it.

“Come on Kurt,” Blaine said from behind him. “Let’s get out of here.” 

“Okay,” he answered. “Sorry we can’t stay for more fun,” he said to Dave. Kurt knew he shouldn’t. They were about to get out of there without any trouble, but he couldn’t help himself. He winked at Dave Karofsky.

And Dave lunged at Kurt, grabbing for his throat. Kurt had prepared as best as he could - Dave easily had a hundred pounds on him, but when Blaine caught him from behind and kept him from hitting the ground he was silently grateful for his boyfriends quick reaction. Dave let go of his throat and Kurt could hear commotion in the locker room as everyone finally noticed what was happening. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted the coach, who sprinted the width of the locker room in three steps, catching Karofsky’s fist just as he pulled back to take a swing at Kurt. 

“That’s enough!”

With her other hand she grabbed the back of Karofsky’s practice uniform, and Kurt watched her practically drag him into her office, dropping him into a chair.

“He started it!” Kurt heard Dave protest. 

“I saw the whole thing!” Beiste countered. She stuck her head out of the office. “Are you all right?” She asked Kurt.

Kurt nodded. “Yes. We just want to get out of here,” he told her.

“Not yet,” she said. “I want to talk to both of you before you leave here. Go outside and wait for me by Figgins’ office.” She glared at Kurt. “And I expect you both to be there when I come lookin’”

“No problem,” Blaine said, nodding vigorously. “We’ll both be here.” 

Kurt felt like he should at least pretend to be annoyed by the order. “Cross my heart,” he said, placing an exaggerated X over his heart. It was as much snark as he could muster.

xxxxx

 **Year** / **Zone**

“It could have been worse,” Blaine said, reaching across the console to where Kurt was sitting in the driver’s seat of Blaine’s Volvo and grabbing his hand, pulling it into his lap. Blaine had driven Kurt to school in the morning to find out his fate; he’d wound up with a one week suspension for being involved in the fight, but nothing more.

When Coach Beiste had finally questioned them on Friday it had come out that Karofsky had threatened Blaine earlier, and that Kurt had only been there to make sure nothing happened to him in the locker room. Luckily for Kurt, Beiste had only seen Karofsky lunge at Kurt while Kurt was keeping his hands to himself, and she hadn’t heard Kurt goading him into it. Since Dave didn’t seem to want to contradict what Beiste saw, she had no choice but to conclude that Karofsky had been the instigator. Blaine was pretty sure Kurt had gotten a participation suspension so Dave’s family wouldn’t complain about how severely Dave was being punished.

Dave had been given the choice of a three month suspension and attending summer school to complete his senior year, as well as being kicked off the football team, or transferring to Rutherford High on the other side of town. He’d opted for the transfer. Blaine felt a little bad about that, because Dave’s refusal to admit that Kurt had provoked him was most likely driven by his not wanting to admit to anyone that he he might be gay. But at the moment, Blaine was just relieved that Dave wouldn’t be around for the rest of the school year.

Kurt shrugged. “I guess.” 

“It’s only a week. And when you get back Karofsky will be gone, so neither one of us will have to worry about him again.” 

“I know,” Kurt said, turning to look out the window. “It’s just -- I don’t want to be suspended.” 

“It never bothered you before.” Blaine didn’t want to hope that he was the reason for Kurt’s change of heart about school. He knew that Karofsky being gone wouldn’t stop the harassment completely, but it would make it less terrible. He didn’t think Kurt would suddenly be interested in becoming a model student.

Kurt shook his head, but managed to meet Blaine’s gaze. “You weren’t there before.”

Blaine gasped quietly, and he could feel his face heat up embarrassingly fast. “ _Kurt,_ ” he exhaled. Kurt tightened his grip on Blaine’s hands. “You don’t have to want to come to school because of me.”

“But you won’t mind if I do?”

Blaine grinned. He knew he was still blushing. “Are you asking if I mind having my boyfriend at school every day, where we can eat lunch together and hold hands in the hallway --”

“Don’t get carried away Blaine.”

“-- and we can make out in empty classrooms --”

“Okay that I’ll agree to.” Kurt pulled Blaine closer, smacking a soft kiss on his mouth. “How about now. Can we go make out now? It feels like it’s been weeks,” Kurt grumbled.

“It’s only been two days, Kurt.” Blaine smiled into another kiss. 

Kurt pouted. “Saturday? That was barely any time at all. And my dad came home before we could get naked.” 

Blaine thought about teasing Kurt some more, but he honestly wanted to get his hands under Kurt’s clothes as much as Kurt wanted to get his hands on Blaine. 

“Okay.”

Kurt perked up. “We can get naked?”

“Partially naked?” Blaine raised one eyebrow. “We can put the seat down in the back and go park behind the abandoned furniture outlet on Elida. There’s an overhang over the loading zone and no one will be able to see us from the road. I can text my mom and tell her I’ll be home by seven. That gives us a few hours?”

“Why have we not explored this hidden make out spot before? And how do you know if its existence Blaine?” Kurt narrowed his eyes suspiciously. 

Blaine shrugged, but Kurt waited. “Okay fine. Last summer, right after we moved here but before I started at McKinley, I used to go to the parking lot and practice singing. There was no one there and the acoustics are good under the overhang.”

“You are such a dork.” Kurt leaned over and kissed him again. “I will accept this compromise for now,” he said. “But we have a date Saturday while my dad’s at work.”

“A naked date?” Blaine teased.

“You bet your naked ass, Anderson.”


End file.
